Between Then and Now and Later

Fuck, it's been five days and I've been absolutely silent on this blog, haven't I?

Where do the days go?

Well, some things have happened since then and now. Here's a few of them.

At the February "Ladies Night" Sickest F***ing Stories, Harz Sonderricker wore a dress.



Which was absolutely fucking terrifying.



As a reward, and because we had a "no call, no show" we let him play in the show. The girls shouted him down for 50 minutes and treated him like a retard that they couldn't wait to get rid of, which made for some hilarious show stuff.



Also, Lisa got the PinkEye, which sucked, but worked out okay because she'll soon be getting glasses (sexy!) and better contact lenses (necessary!)

Sorry, no pic of the red-hued ocular girl, as she was on quarantine for a few days, but I bet she looked something like this...



God Bless the Google Image Search, eh?

Oh and if you were wondering if there was a porno title called "Pink Eye" which seems to be a series of cumshots into teenage girls eyes, there is. Click here to take a look at it, you sick bastard.

The subtitle of "Eye Cream! Eye Cream. We All Scream For Eye Cream!" DOES make you want to plonk down your hard-earned cash for that particular gem, don't it?

Back on topic...

I am listening to a lot of this lately.



when I am feeling weepy.

And to this...



when I am feeling like the coolest guy in the room.

Saturday Stinger had a class-act, A+, brilliant fucking show at The Playground Theater. I DEFY you to have witnessed what we will henceforth call the "Gay Goose" show and NOT suspect that we secretly scripted the whole thing. Plots progressed logically and smartly and all tied around the central theme of "marital relationships". Fucking brilliant show. It don't get much better than that one!



Um, work has been good. And Busy. Last week was all prep for tonight's board meeting.

This week will be all about working tech for our annual fund-raiser show. I've been given the job of "Follow Spot Op", which, for those of you who've been following my journey so far, was my ACTUAL job at Metropolis in 2002 and at The Capital Theater in Bowling Green, Ky, in 1998. Ten years later, and someone sticks me behind a follow spot uh-gain! I wonder which follow spot I'll be operating ten years from now?


How I NORMALLY look at work.

It's February in Chicago, which means we're living in the frozen, fucking tundra. It's too cold to walk outside. Thank God the good Lord gave us interns to take the work mail out, eh?

Yep, it's a bloody blizzard out there.



One more thing before I close down this blog entry.

At the end of this month, it will mark the one year anniversary since that horrible person from the Cleveland home office flew to Chicago to fire three employees in my office in one day. I worked another month, prepping the office for my replacement. I walked out of there into an uncertain future carrying a legal box of everything that I cared to save, which included a postcard from Ben Parker, some show reviews and my bamboo plant, which the chill air promptly killed. I was scared, scared, scared. I didn't know where I was going to end up two weeks from then, much less a year later. I was unemployed with no prospects.

And it was a terrible year. I was as poor as I've ever been in my life. I remember one night, while Joe was out of town, where I trolled the filthy floors of his bedroom looking for enough pocket change to afford a CTA trip to my shitty temp job the next day. I sold comics. I sold DVDs. I worked ANYTHING that was offered to me, including a few shitty medical seminars that had me getting up at 3am to make a 5am call at the hotel downtown. Everywhere I went, with everyone I had contact with, I approached with the hope that they would hire me and save me from the terrifying purgatory of unemployment.

And that's how I found myself working five months under the worst fucking employer I have EVER had at a fund-raising institute for a Jewish college in the middle east. I was so low that when I got released from THAT job, a job that I hated every humiliating, intolerable minute of, I felt like I'd hit rock bottom in my suit and tie. (I was wearing it that day for a show, that night.)

Somehow, through luck and a good reference from a good friend, I have found my way to the best thing you could possibly ask for, a job that you're good at, that you enjoy doing. I can't imagine why I never worked at a job that I enjoyed before. Why did I make it so hard on myself before? Why did I settle for whatever would take me FOR THREE FUCKING YEARS, when there were jobs that I was good at, that liked me and wanted me there. A job that I excel at. (Policies and Documents that I am creating today will still be used, YEARS from now. And the place runs more smoothly now, because I am there. I think that they're slowly coming to realize that, but it's true.)

I don't dread the bus ride to work anymore. I don't feel anxious and nauseous if I am going to be a few minutes late. I don't watch the clock all day, waiting to get out of there. I frequently work late. I like my co-workers. I like my workspace. I like my job duties. I like the people I help in my daily routine. I like being useful. I like my job.

So, to go from hopelessness to desperate scrabble to absolute defeat to complete success has made this a memorable year for me. And I just wanted to take a minute and use a few words to mark the anniversary or near-anniversary.

I can't wait to find out what this next year will bring.



Cheers all,
Mr.B